Atlantic Crossing on a Single Engine Airplane Part 1

Updated on February 3, 2013

Since my early days of
flying back in 1978, when I was trying to learn how to fly sail
planes in Panagitsa Edessa Greece, the idea of crossing the Atlantic
on a Single Engine Airplane was stuck in my mind.

I guess it was out of
reading too many aviation adventure books that time.

The Airplanes

The Single engine airplane I crossed Atlantic

A C172 similar to the one we were flying to Italy

Cessna 172 The Instrument Panel

Cessna 310

Cessna 310 another shot

Piper Navajo 425P

Anyway, I got my PPL SE
Airplanes (Private Pilot License Single Engine) back in 1982, from
the Local Aero-club. We were a few active pilots back then and the
norm was to fly around the airport's pattern, nothing spectacular.
Touch and goes for an hour or so, and then sitting in the club
talking adventures of others. I thought that flying was much more
than that, so I started planning trips to nearby destinations. The
most attractive destinations were the Greek Islands, at least the
islands with a runway. Fuel was always an issue, as the vast majority
of the Islands had no aviation fuel. I am afraid that this situation
has not been changed until today.

For a year or so, I did a
lot of flying to the Greek Islands. Starting from my home airport in
Thessaloniki (North Greece) I had to make a stop over to Marathon
(Athens Greece) for refueling, and then proceed to Mykonos,
Santorini, etc. Fellow pilots in the Club, started also traveling
further than the airport pattern, so we made a group of enthusiasts
for long distance flying. Then the idea came to fly further away, to
Italy. First destination Brindisi. They serve perfect espresso coffee
and Italy is famous for shopping. Well, the problem was not only the
fuel, as we could refuel in Corfu Island, but also the Otranto
straight, 90 NM of sea, between Greece and Italy. It was a risk on a
single engine airplane.

We did it, and we liked it
and every other weekend we were in Brindisi and Bari for espresso and
shopping. The tech-nick was simple. Otranto straight is a very busy
shipping lane. Several passenger ships, cargo ships and ferries are
crossing the area, both Northbound and Southbound. As we were
crossing Otranto, we would not fly straight to our destination, but
we would fly over the ships beneath us, a kind of zig-zag, leaving
one ship to fly above the next one. In case of loss of power on our
single engine, the plan was to ditch near the ship, so to have more
chances to be seen and survive.

We never had a single
incident during that trips, although I remember, flying from
Thessaloniki to Skiathos, an island 90 NM South of our home airport,
on a Cessna 172 Rheims, (220 HP), we experienced a loss of oil
pressure, minutes away form the island. When we landed and we opened
the cowling of our single engine we realized a crack along the engine
body, leaking the last drops of oil. The engine broke on our way to
the island, and lost all of its oil. We were lucky that it happened
when we were about to land. It took several weeks to fix the airplane
with a new engine and fly it back home.

Years passed by, and at
the end of 1989 I earned my ME (Multi-engine) licenses as well as IFR
(Instrument Flying) training. It was the time I purchased my first
airplane, a Twin Engine Cessna 310. The trips were longer and further
away, like Larnaca Cyprus, or Innsbruck Austria. Gaining experience,
adding flying time, the dream was always there. To cross the Atlantic
on a single engine airplane.

It was January 2008 when
one of my classmates in the pilot school, Costas, called me and asked
me if I was in the mood to help him fly a single engine airplane all
the way from Athens Greece to New York. He had to deliver the
airplane on behalf of its owner and as it was a long trip, with
unfavorable weather and he would appreciate to do it with my help.

We were friends with
Costas, since our early days of flying. We have been flying together
several times since then, both on single and twin engine airplanes. I
trusted him, and he trusted me as a pilot. I remember one afternoon,
back in mid eighties, he had to renew his medical, in Athens. We were
sitting in the club and he asked me to fly him from Thessaloniki to
Athens, see the doctor for couple of hours and then fly back to
Thessaloniki. It was February, the sun was setting early, and the
weather was very cold. The club had a fleet of old Cessnas 172 which
are not famous for the cabin heating abilities. We decided to carry
blankets and cover our feet to protect them from freezing. And off we
went.

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